UK looking to ban smoking in cars with children, should we? [w/poll]

Lawmakers in the United Kingdom are pushing to ban smoking in cars when children are present. The legislation is making its way through Parliament and has already been passed as part of a bill by the House of Commons. The ban, supported by the country's left-wing Labour party, is set to go before the House of Lords, which could vote it into law, according to The Telegraph.

"Adults are free to make their own choices but that often does not apply to children and that's why society has an obligation to protect them from preventable harm," said the UK's shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham.

The ban is raising the ire of some, though, who see a ban on smoking in private vehicles as government overreach. "I think this legislation is very heavy-handed, totally unnecessary and according to surveys 84-percent of adults wouldn't dream of lighting a cigarette in a car, in a small enclosed space with a child present," said Simon Clark, the director of Forest, a UK-based "pro-smoking group."

We want to know what you think. Is the UK government overstepping its boundaries by attempting to regulate what's done in privately owned vehicles, or are they merely defending those who can't defend themselves? Would you support a national ban on smoking in cars containing children in the US? Register your vote in our unofficial poll, and then head into Comments to publish your thoughts.

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"...84% of people wouldn't dream of lighting a cigarette with a child in the car." They used this as the argument for why the law is unnecessary. I say-- thanks for the info. We'll pass this law for the 16% who apparently would dream of lighting up with kids in the car.

You can't regulate poor judgement. While I agree that a parent shouldn't smoke in a car with children(younger than teenagers) present or without at least the window down, I think the worst way to go about changing this behavior is with a law.

Californias where all the smoking ban and junk science backing it up came from to start with..........
Socialism is rife in California they come up with it and export it! California is the land of nuts and fruits for sure!
Eugenics: the California connection to Nazi policies
http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/03/11/10.php
Eugenics: the California connection to Nazi policies_SF Chronicle
Mon, 10 Nov 2003
On Sunday, Nov 9, the San Francisco Chronicle published an extraordinary, most informative article by Edwin Black, that sheds light on the role played by the American eugenics movement in the Nazi extermination policy. Eugenics is a pseudoscience whose purported aim is to “improve” the human race, while eliminating that portion of the race that eugenicists deem “undesirable.” The article is adapted from Black’s recently released book, “War Against the Weak,” published by Four Walls Eight Windows.
Black shows that American eugenics played a decisive role in the adoption of racist and even lethal public policies in the US and then in Germany. Black writes: “Eugenics would have been so much bizarre parlor talk had it not been for extensive financing by corporate philanthropies, specifically the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Harriman railroad fortune. They were all in league with some of America’s most respected scientists from such prestigious universities as Stanford, Yale, Harvard and Princeton. These academicians espoused race theory and race science, and then faked and twisted data to serve eugenics’ racist aims.”

I support this, but how the hell would it be monitored? But I guess simply using it as a fear tactic is still good enough if it can persuade the minds of some to stop smoking with their kid in the car.

California already has legislation in place to where you can incur additional fines if you're pulled over for something and found to be smoking in a car with a minor (younger than 18). $100. Some places here you can't even smoke in public.

apparently a BUNCH of liberal idiots peruse this site. Nearly 75% of you can't make common sense decisions for yourself and need the government to do everything including wiping your ass.. then it would be a perfect world right?

Making laws to protect the innocent children has nothing to do with being a liberal.
I guess you would like to get rid of traffic lights too because we can all just make the common sense decision to be careful at the intersections, huh??

whenever something is done "for the children" you need to look deeper. 99% of all laws written to "protect the children" are really just ruses to tug on the heart strings of people who vote emotionally instead of logically

Government should step in to protect people who cannot protect themselves. If it means I'm a liberal to want to make sure that children don't have to suffer life long consequences because their parents are idiots, then call me a liberal. What would your solution be? Give children guns and tell them they're allowed to shoot their parents if they do bad things?
You should probably know as well, that most of the world is "liberal". Most of humanity believe in protecting the weak and innocent rather then let the powerful and stupid walk all over them. That number is also growing with every generation. Maybe you should just go build your crazy mountain man shack now because us liberal commie scum come and turn you to be a gay atheist terrorist and force you to use our evil free medical care. It's not too late to double down on being a relic on the wrong side of history.

Exactly.
Bunch of liberals. It's like having laws against child abuse. What a crock of government meddling. Obviously smart people won't smoke in their cars, but the stupid people should be allow to harm their kids because that is their RIGHT.
/obvious sarcasm.

Of course the liberal communists want the government to control all aspects of life, just like they want to force gay marriage on us and force weed legalization on us.
Here's an interesting article about secondhand source-it is NOT dangerous.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/12/19/second_hand_smoke_proven_harmless_again
Besides, my children(if i had any) are my property. I can do whatever the hell I want with them.

Yeah..... No
Your a conspiracies are uneducated.
Your views are ignorant.
And slavery is outlawed and human rights are standard. So no you can't do whatever you want with your kids.
but thanks for expressing your first amendment.

Scientific Evidence Shows Secondhand Smoke Is No Danger
Written By: Jerome Arnett, Jr., M.D.
Published In: Environment & Climate News
Publication Date: July 1, 2008
Publisher:
http://www.heartland
.org/policybot/resul
ts/23399/Scientific_
Evidence_Sho...
myth-of-second-hand-
smoke
http://yourdoctorsor
ders.com/2009/01/the
-myth-of-second-hand
-smoke
BS Alert: The 'third-hand smoke' hoax
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-louisville/bs-alert-the-third-hand-smoke-hoax
The thirdhand smoke scam
http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com/2010/02/thirdhand-smoke-scam.html
Heart attacks Frauds and Myths..
http://www.spiked-on
line.com/index.php/s
ite/article/7451/
TobaccoControl Tactics
TCTactics aims to provide up-to-date information on the Tobacco Control Industry, its allies and those promoting the extremist anti-tobacco agenda that no longer targets just tobacco but ordinary adult consumers who use it.
The website explores how this industry – with support from the pharmaceutical nicotine producers and government tax funds – influences and often distorts public health debates, using a whole raft of lobbying, public relations tactics and junk science.
http://tctactics.org/index.php/Main_Page
...................
"Robert Nilsson,
Professor of Molecular Toxicology, Stockholm University, Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Toxicology.
"The one-sided preoccupation with enviromental tobacco smoke (ETS) as a causative factor of lung cancer in nonsmokers may seriously hinder the elucidation of the multifactorial etiology of these tumors."
In the book 'What Risk?' Professor Nilsson puts children's risk of passive smoking in this perspective:
"Looked at another way, a child's intake of benzo[a]pyrene during 10 hours from ETS is estimated to be about 250 times less than the amount ingested from eating one grilled sausage""”